John Wilkes Booth Assassinates Lincoln in Coordinated Conspiracy to Decapitate Union Government After Confederate Defeat

At approximately 10:20 p.m. on April 14, 1865, Confederate sympathizer and prominent actor John Wilkes Booth shoots President Abraham Lincoln in the back of the head at point-blank range while Lincoln watches a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. Lincoln dies the following morning at a …